In Win tou Case Review

Operating Temperatures and Wrap Up

To ensure accurate thermal results, we installed the same hardware in each case in virtually the same way. Components included the Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional, Phenom II X6 1100T, Prolimatech Megahalems in passive mode (i.e. no fan actively dispelling heat), Inno3D GeForce GTX 580 OC, half a dozen Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drives, and OCZ's ZX 1000w power supply.

With the fans set to their maximum speed, the In Win tòu is extremely loud, much louder than we consider tolerable. The only good news here is that the idle temperatures were quite good, keeping the GPU at 37 degrees and the processor at 22 degrees, close to ambient room temperature.

Reducing the fan speed to its minimum value meant that the tòu was now near silent. Despite the drastic reduction in operating volume the CPU/GPU only increased slightly in temperature and that is impressive particularly given the CPU is passively cooled.

Stress testing the In Win tòu using Prime95 and FurMark we again see the fans spinning at full speed and the case does very well. The GPU was kept at just 77 degrees while the CPU was limited to a maximum of 70 degrees.

Lowering the fans to their slowest speed only increased temperatures of the CPU and GPU by 4 to 5 degrees which was great to see. In terms of performance, the tòu was comparable to the Corsair Obsidian 650D and Silverstone Fortress FT04.

Final Thoughts

If you own a CM Elite because it's a good value or the Rosewill R103A because it comes with a power supply, we understand if you think someone who buys an $800 box has more money than sense. The argument could be made that the tòu is impractical and overpriced, but there are plenty of enthusiasts who will compare it to buying a work of art. It's hard to put a price on something that's one of a kind.

That isn't to say the tòu is perfect – far from it. Yet it's the only case that has made me want to turn a computer on purely to admire its enclosure. It's one of those rare products that unless you have seen it in person you haven't really seen it at all, kind of like an exotic super car. For all its shortcomings, perhaps most notable of which is the lack of a CPU cutout in the motherboard tray, the tòu is a case unlike any other.

Would I pay $800 for it? Probably not, but I'm not the right customer either. While I appreciate high-end equipment, I wouldn't invest in a 4-way GPU setup nor would I purchase an Intel Extreme Edition CPU. They cross the line into diminishing returns. Spending $800 on the tòu isn't exactly the same as buying an EE processor since there isn't a cheaper option that is virtually the same, so it does stand on its own.

My point is that In Win has made the tòu for the same folks who will drop thousands on a CPU/GPU setup which isn't much faster than a much cheaper alternative. It's for people like my good friend who has money to burn on a budgetless computer. From that point of view, we can't imagine the 200 or so lucky souls who are fortunate enough to have a shiny tòu sitting on their desk will regret their purchase.